Los Angeles history

Matt Weinstock, May 20, 1960

May 20, 2010 | 4:03
pm

“UINUERLAOEJG!”

May 20, 1960: "I've worked in local coffeehouses for over a year," a reader tells Matt Weinstock, "and I've yet to see a beatnik. It's for un-real. A joke perpetuated by the press and perpetuated by coffeehouse owners. I suppose everybody's happy with it, however. The 'beat' label allows bad painters, singers and writers to 'express' themselves, the owners get high prices for the coffee and the atmosphere and it keeps the Angry Young People off the streets. It's really quite funny -- the nonconformists comfortably conforming over their cappuccino cups. Who knows? Perhaps it has enriched our culture."

CONFIDENTIAL TO WORSHIPED HIM: Now that you are wiser, ask him to park his clay feet under somebody else's sofa every night.